* AccidentallyAccurate: Stephen Pastis drew Guard Duck ordering "Chateaubriand, cooked medium well, and a glass of your finest Pinot Noir". Pastis didn't know what Chateaubriand was, but assumed it was a food and felt it sounded fancy. Chateaubriand is a steak (more specifically, a thick slice of beef tenderloin in special sauce) and a good pinot noir isn't a bad wine pairing either.* BeamMeUpScotty: [[http://pearlswine.livejournal.com/514708.html The famous final line from]] ''GoneWithTheWind'' is intentionally misquoted in order to make yet another [[OverlyPrepreparedGag Overly Preprepared]] IncrediblyLamePun work.** According to [[WordOfGod Pastis (in one of the treasuries)]], he accidentally misquoted the line, then wrote the last panel [[AuthorsSavingThrow to make it look intentional]].* ExecutiveMeddling:** Pastis originally intended that Dickie the Cockroach would take the heads of people he didn't like, but editors felt this wouldn't go over well, particularly after journalist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pearl Daniel Pearl]] was beheaded by kidnappers in Afghanistan. Pastis changed the strips to have Dickie slapping duct tape on the mouths of people, instead. The original strips were included in later collections so that readers could judge for themselves.** Goat is a positive example, as early on the editors requested another character for the strip, and Pastis went through several animals before the Goat we know today was born.* MissingEpisode: Many books feature comic strips that were never printed as they were deemed too offensive or simply not funny.** ActuallyPrettyFunny: YMMV, of course, but some of the rejected strips aren't that bad. One particular example where Pig misunderstands Rat's complaint about the birds [[VisualPun "doing their business"]] on his car.* OneOfUs: Pastis seems to be this. [[WordOfGod According to the treasuries]], he likes playing Wii, is a fan of WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy, and even did a reference to Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness (seen [[http://fleen.com/uploads/2013/06/pb130611.gif here]]).* OldShame: One book has several early strips that Pastis made when ''Pearls'' was still a webcomic. He derided most of them for being OutOfCharacter.** There are also various strips that were [[ExecutiveMeddling Not Ready for Primetime]] and those Pastis thought were either too weird or just plain sucked, and ended up getting scrapped.* RecycledScript: Averted for the most part, but a pair of strips really stand out: [[http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2011/09/29 September 29, 2011]], a daily strip, was recycled less than a week later into [[http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2011/10/02 October 02, 2011]], a Sunday strip, with an extra punchline from Rat. This was pointed out in some of the latter strip's Gocomics comments.** [[http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2008/08/06 These]] [[http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2008/09/01 strips]] as well, which ran about a month apart in 2008.* ShrugOfGod: Quite often, most notably with describing the crocs' dialect.* SleeperHit: According to Pastis in an interview, this was the case for ''Pearls''. The sales staff at United Features Syndicate didn't think the strip was going to sell, so it was placed online-only on the syndicate's website for about a year. What got it launched in newspapers was that Scott Adams, of ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'', was a fan of the strip and endorsed it on his newsletter. The readership increased as a result, and with Adams' support, the sales staff now had enough clout to get it sold to newspapers. It's now appearing in over 750 newspapers, has over a dozen book collections, and was even turned into an animated web series.* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In the treasury book ''Pearls Freaks the #*%# Out'', Pastis mentions at one point that he contemplated plans for a ''Pearls Before Swine'' [[TheMovie movie]]. It ended up not happening due to several Hollywood agents and executives not returning his calls.